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Today your daily newsblitz is all about the big news of the week — that San Diego Unified Superintendent Terry Grier is headed for Houston. The news has been fast and furious from here to the Gulf Coast.
- We write about the worries that another change in leadership could signal some systemic problems with San Diego Unified and its ability to hold on to leaders. “Superintendents with good reputations are going to be wary of taking on this job,” a national expert says of San Diego. And if you missed our first article on the reactions and impact of a Grier departure, click here to read up on how the news rippled through the district on Wednesday.
- The Union-Tribune reports on a fledgling movement to keep Grier around. School board member John de Beck said that with an adversarial board for Grier here and a better salary there, he isn’t holding his breath that Grier will be pulled back — or will want to be.
- Our blogs have been going crazy. We get reader and expert feedback on why the revolving door at San Diego Unified seems to keep revolving. Check out takes here from a school board member, the deputy superintendent, the teachers union, a wonk and a reader. And here’s one from the world of higher education.
- And if you want some primary source material, here is the memo that school board President Shelia Jackson sent to staff about the news. And my editor Andrew Donohue asks for your take: Good grief or good riddance?
- KPBS reports from the press conference held by Jackson about the Grier-to-Houston news. She didn’t have much to say because the board hasn’t met yet to talk about their options.
- My new favorite education reporter Ericka Mellon at the Houston Chronicle reports on how Grier is being received in Texas. Their school board is all smiles, but the Houston Press reports that a state senator asks what kind of Kool-Aid they’re drinking and the union is tepid at best. And they also seem worried that he doesn’t speak Spanish.
- Even the folks who knew him back in North Carolina are chiming in, saying all the extreme reactions he inspires in San Diego seem awfully familiar to folks out in Guilford County. The editorial page editor of the Greensboro News and Record weighs in here.
- Our media partners at NBC are everywhere. They sent along this video from Texas of Grier shaking hands just to prove that yes, he was in Houston yesterday.
And just for good measure, a few things from outside Grierdom:
- The Los Angeles Times reports that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a heap of education reforms he wants the state legislature to pass, including merit pay, closing and revamping the lowest performing schools in each district, and requiring schools to use test data to measure teachers — something that is extraordinarily rare and now forbidden for the state to do under state law. If it goes through, California would be in a much better place to snap up more stimulus dollars from the Obama Administration. We’ll see if they bite.
- We had another guest blogger yesterday, professor emerita of education Jill Kerper Mora, who explained why she’s against using test scores to evaluate teachers. She makes some really interesting arguments. Check it out if you haven’t already.